Cirque Alice | Tim Lawson & Simon Painter
Images: Peter Wallis
The circus has taken over one of the last places you’d expect - QPAC. The premiere production of Cirque Alice brings a mash-up of circus and Lewis Carroll’s beloved text to the Concert Hall stage for some of the best circus and cabaret acts that I’ve seen in some time.
A stellar cast of performaners bring the iconic characters of Lewis Carroll to acrobatic life as Alice (Layla Schillert) journeys a perfect feature length time through Wonderland. Is there a storyline? Technically, yes. But’s it’s all a loose thread to give you what you’ve come for - jaw-dropping circus acts that will take your breath away.
The show hurls us through Carroll’s universe, with the audience following an operatic Alice as she sings each chacter to life, all immediately identified thanks to the stellar work of the costume team. In amongst the many acts are a bendy caterpillar comprising of four contortionists, a spinning march hare performing on Rue Cyr and a precariously balanced Dormouse on rolla bolla. Props to the producers, as they’ve assembled one of the hottest team of carnies to hit a stage in Magandjin for some time, bringing tricks rarely scene in our corner of the world.
The Mad Hatter, played with Vegas polish by magician Jeff Hobson, supported Alice in the MC duties, breaking the fourth wall to give us time to catch our breath between acts to try to figure out how the performers pulled off each of their tricks. His sleight-of-hand tricks, audience interactions and well-timed banter worked for both the young and old in the audience, make him as one of the favourites of the show.
Images: Peter Wallis
In amongst all the great acts were two mind blowing highlights. Firstly, ‘The TT Boys’, an Ethiopian Risley duo doubling as Tweedledee and Tweedledum, who need to be seen to be believed. I’ve seen a lot of circus over the years, so I can be a bit jaded about some of the acts you see again and again in cabarets like this, but Risley always blows my mind. For the unitiated, Risley, otherwise known as Icarian Games, is a duo act where one person, lying on their back will spin and flip their partner. With their LEGS. Often at break neck speed. So to see one the TT Boys being flipped repetitively backwards at high speed by his partner’s well timed push in his lower back, only to be given one final extra push that launched into a sommersault that landed him, standing, on his partners legs, broke something in my brain. Words cannot do an act like this justice. It’s a must see.
Similarly, the Royal roller-skating duo of Anastasiia Vashenko and Leandro Zeferino gave us another nerve wrackingly dizzying routine. Performed atop what looked like an oversized Lazy Susan they spun circles around each, in increasingly death defying poses. Without giving away spoilers, it’s the kind of act where you can’t begin to fathom how’s they’re doing it and how it doesn’t result in serious injuries. But you can’t look away.
Images: Peter Wallis
My one quibble with the show is with what seems to have become a staple of commercial circus cabarets these days - having a troupe of back-up dancers to fill the space between acts. Don’t get me wrong, the dancing was fine, but was a bit too much for me and didn’t quite fit with the aesthetic and performance style of the acts. It’s as if the production team couldn’t bare to have a moment of stillness on the stage, so they filled any moment between acts with high-energy commercial jazz numbers because they were worried the audience would get bored. Ultimately it was a bit too much for me, and I would have preferred a bit more subdued character work that recreated scenes from the book to thread a bit more narrative into the show.
Overall though, there’s no denying that Cirque Alice is dazzling, ambitious, unpredictable and highly entertaining show. It’s a gleeful, celebration of what circus can be—wild, weird, and wickedly entertaining. Cirque Alice is a guaranteed great night out for the whole family that will blow your mind and have have you hooting and hollering for me.
Cirque Alice plays QPAC’s Concert Hall until 22 April 2025
